Hebrews 5:7-10 states: In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.This High Priestly work of Christ for the sins of mankind is so crucial to how we understand what Christ accomplished for sinners upon the Cross of Calvary. In today’s message, we follow the drama of redemption as Christ in the Gospel according to John. We begin with Christ in the celebration of the Passover with His disciples where He inaugurated the New Covenant in His blood by changing the symbols of the Passover meal to refer to what He was to accomplish for His people. Just as the Israelites were protected in Egypt by the blood of the lamb above the doorposts, so did the Lamb of God come to have God’s wrath pass over His people and rest upon the Son.
The disciples did not understand that the Servant had come to put away Sin. They thought, even until the end, that Christ would inaugurate a powerful earthly Kingdom by the great display of His power. But, Christ played the fool and went to the death of a Cursed person. To this day, Jews and Muslims cannot accept that the death of a cursed man could be the way of salvation. It is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the world.
But even as Christ came into the world so that whosoever would believe upon Him would have eternal life, He prayed earnestly in the Garden. He prayed that God would be glorified in Him and that He would lose none of His own. We know that our salvation is sure because Christ experienced Hell in the garden and on the Cross for us and His sacrifice of prayer was heard and accepted by the Father. We know that our salvation is secure and our sins are paid for because all that the Son brings to the Father will be accepted.
And so Christ, after He had arisen from His knees accepted the full measure of the scorn of the world and of the Father for sin because He had come to suffer for His people. He went to the Cross, paid for our sin there and finished His work that we might have our sins forgiven.
